2 he sent to Thecua, and took thence a prudent woman: and he said to her: Feign that thou mournest, & put on a mourning garment, & be not anointed with oil, that thou mayest be as a woman now a long time mourning for one dead.📜💬📚

3 And thou shalt go in unto the king, & shalt speak to him these manner of words. And Joab put the words in her mouth.📜💬📚

4 Therefore when the woman of Thecua was gone in to the king, she fell before him upon the ground and adored, & said: Save me, o king.📜💬📚

5 And the king said to her: What matter hast thou? Who answered: Alas, I am a widow woman: for my husband is dead.📜💬📚

6 And thy handmaid had two sons: who fell at words against each other in the field, & there was none to stay them: & the one struck the other, & slew him.📜💬📚

7 And behold the whole kindred rising against thy handmaid, saith: Deliver him that hath strucken his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother, whom he hath slain, & may clean destroy the heir: and they seek to extinguish my sparkle, which is left, that there may no name remain to my husband, nor relics upon the earth.📜💬📚

8 And the king said to the woman: Go into thy house, and I will give commandment for thee.📜💬📚

9 And the woman of Thecua said to the king: Upon me, my lord, be the iniquity, and upon the house of my father: but be the king & his throne innocent.📜💬📚

10 And the king said: He that shall gainsay thee bring him to me, and he shall add no more to touch thee.📜💬📚

11 Who said: Let the king remember our Lord his God, that the next of blood be not multiplied to revenge, and that they kill not my son. Who said: Our Lord liveth, there shall not fall of the hairs of thy son upon the earth.📜💬📚

12 The woman therefore said: Let thy handmaid speak to my lord the king a word. And he said: Speak.📜💬📚

13 And the woman said: Why hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God, and why hath the king spoken this word, that he would sin, and not bring again his banished one?📜💬📚

14 We do all die, and as waters that return not, we fall down on the earth: neither will God have a soul to perish, but revoketh, meaning that he perish not altogether that is cast off.📜💬📚

15 Now therefore I come, that I may speak to my lord the king this word, the people being present. And thy handmaid said: I will speak to the king, if by any means the king may do the word of his handmaid.📜💬📚

16 And the king hath heard, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of all, that would destroy me out of the inheritance of our Lord, and my son together.📜💬📚

17 Let thy handmaid therefore say, that the word of my lord the king be made as a sacrifice. For even as an Angel of God, so is my lord the king, that he is moved neither with blessing nor cursing: Wherefore our Lord also thy God is with thee.📜💬📚

18 And the king answering, said to the woman: Hide not from me the thing that I ask thee. And the woman said to him: Speak my lord king.📜💬📚

19 And the king said: Is the hand of Joab with thee in all these things? The woman answered, & said: By the health of thy soul, my lord king, it is neither on the left hand, nor on the right of all these things, which my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he commanded me, and he put all these words into the mouth of thy handmaid.📜💬📚

20 That I should change the form of this speech, thy servant Joab commanded this: and thou my lord king, art wise, as an Angel of God hath wisdom, that thou understandest all things upon the earth.📜💬📚

21 And the king said to Joab: Behold I being pacified have done thy word: Go therefore, & call again the boy Absalom.📜💬📚

22 And Joab falling upon his face unto the earth, adored, and blessed the king; and Joab said: This day thy servant hath understood, that I have found grace in thy sight my lord king for thou hast done the word of thy servant.📜💬📚

23 Joab therefore arose and went into Gessur, and brought Absalom into Jerusalem.📜💬📚

24 But the king said: Let him return into his house, and not see my face. Absalom therefore returned into his house, & the king's face he saw not.📜💬📚

25 Moreover like as Absalom, there was not a man in all Israel so beautiful, & exceeding comely: from the sole of the foot to the crown there was no blemish in him.📜💬📚

26 And when he polled his hair (once a year he was polled, because his bush did burden him) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred sicles, of the common weight.📜💬📚

27 And there were born to Absalom three sons: and one daughter, named Thamar, of a goodly beauty.📜💬📚

Absalom Reconciled to David

28 And Absalom abode in Jerusalem two years, and saw not the king's face.📜💬📚

29 He therefore sent to Joab, to send him to the king: who would not come to him. And when he had sent the second time, and he would not come to him,📜💬📚

30 he said to his servants: You know the field of Joab beside my field, that hath barley harvest: go therefore and burn it with fire. The servants therefore of Absalom burnt the corn with fire. And Joab's servants coming, renting their garments, said: The servants of Absalom have burnt part of the field with fire.📜💬📚

31 And Joab arose, & came to Absalom in his house, & said: Why have thy servants burnt my corn with fire?📜💬📚

32 And Absalom answered Joab: I sent to thee beseeching thee that thou wouldst come unto me, & I might send thee to the king, & thou shouldst say to him: Wherefore came I out of Gessur? It was better for me to be there: I beseech thee therefore that I may see the face of the king: & if he be mindful of mine iniquity, let him kill me.📜💬📚

33 Joab therefore entering in to the king, told him all things: and Absalom was called, and he entered in to the king: and adored upon the face of the earth before him: and the king kissed Absalom.📜💬📚

Douay Rheims Original ↷

2 Samuel 14 📜 📕 ↷

Absalom's Return to Jerusalem

Absalom Reconciled to David

Next Chapter: 2 Samuel 15